Page 22 of When You Saved Me

My chest heaved up and down as my breaths quickened. A tingling sensation pricked where the palm of his hand closed over my wrist. It was hard to deny that every time we grew near, my body came alive.

“It’s late,” I whispered, peering up at him. His lips pulled back into a tight line when I continued, “I’m going to a hotel to get some sleep.”

“No.” He stepped into my space. He didn’t let my wrist go.

“Deacon,” I said softly. “I’ve already become a nuisance. The last thing I want to do is bring that annoyance into your home.”

Frustration flashed across his face. His nostrils flared and a muscle feathered along his square jaw. Then, he shifted toward the kitchen counter and swiped the bundle of fabric I’d seen earlier off it.

“I wasn’t sure what to grab, so I just brought you some pajamas. The rest of your things are in my truck.” My chin lowered as I noticed the clothes in his hand.Myclothes. It was the sage green set I’d gotten for Christmas. The material was soft and lined with dainty cream-colored lace.

I looked back up at Deacon. Long thick lashes cast shadows over his tanned cheeks. Being this close to him, I noticed the veins that ran down both sides of his neck and just how broad his shoulders were. Under the layer of his flannel and T-shirt, I could see the muscles honed over years of doing hard labor. Everything about him was rough and yet…he was so damn handsome; it took my breath away.

“You want me to stay? With you?”

His Adam’s Apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. “It’s too dangerous to drive on these roads. This was our first snowfall of the season, so they haven’t salted the roads yet.”

It was so hard to reconcile how he was acting right now with the guy who slammed his front door in my face. He was ice and fire, and I never knew which version I was going to get.

Something about that made my blood hum.

“Okay,” I whispered, taking my pajamas from him. “I’ll stay.”

Chapter 9

Charlie

I tugged on the soft pajama shorts Deacon brought me from the cabin. He kept his home pretty warm, so I wasn’t worried about being cold tonight.

Iwasworried about walking out of the bathroom half dressed.

From the moment he’d asked me to stay, it felt like something shifted between us. I knew nothing about this man, other than he used to be a firefighter in Charlotte and that he wasn’t a big fan of people. But some part of me knew there was so much more to him than that and I craved to sit by his side and listen to the deep tone of his voice tell me about the unseen parts of him. But that was likely a wish that would never come true.

“This will just have to do,” I murmured to myself in the mirror before I left Deacon’s bathroom and nearly walked smack into a very muscular chest.

“Oh!” I squeaked as I found myself staring at sunbronzed skin and tight pectoral muscles with a small dusting of black hair between them. Biting my lower lip, I let my gaze trail downward to Deacon’s abdomen and that’s when I noticed the burn scar that covered most of his right rib cage. The skin was tinged with angry shades of red and pink, probably from the heat of the shower he’d just gotten out of.

An image flashed in my mind of both of us on the ground, covered in burning rubble. His face was twisted in agony from the fire that burned his skin, but that didn’t stop him from reaching out to me. Telling me to stay with him. Telling me to keep my eyes on him.

Just like that day, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from him and the scar that would bind us together forever.

My hand instinctively drifted to my side where I knew there was a scar, much like his. But I balled my palm into a fist and dropped it to my hip.

“Sorry,” he huffed, and my eyes shot upward to see him rake a hand over his short dark hair. “I thought you were going to be in there longer. I just came in here to grab some clothes.” He lifted his right hand that held a pair of briefs and black sweatpants.

“Right. Of course. It’s your room. I can just leave,” I stammered, fighting the desire to take in the body before me that was the definition of a beautifully rugged man.

“No.” His hand shot out, landing on the bathroom door frame. I was caged in, the smell of cedarwood and fresh soap hanging in the air between us.

“You happen to like that word a lot, don’t you?” Ilaughed, trying to distract myself from how good he smelled.

He didn’t say anything. So, I just stared at him. Finding myself lost in what I realized weren’t purely green eyes. There was a large fleck of golden brown in his right eye and swirls of pale blue melded into the green. I noticed as they flicked down to my lips. My breath caught in my throat as his head tilted to the side and he seemed to move closer to me.

Dizziness swarmed my senses, the background of his bedroom fading away as he grew closer still.

Kiss me.Please, kiss me, I silently urged him.

Heat licked up my spine as my entire body grew still under his spell. There was nothing I wanted more in that moment than for his lips to touch mine. To feel his warmth pressed against me as I explored the planes of his hard body with my hands.

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